"When I hooked up the Innovate I saw that some cylinders were in the high 15 range and some were in the 11 range, and it was just all over the place. It was kind of random, but there were a couple of cylinders that were going to suffer some serious damage if we
didn't take some action," said Tracy.
To get to the bottom of the problem Tracy decided to take the shop's known good carburetor and bolt it up to the big block. A subsequent pull netted an additional 40 hp. Since the individual air fuel ratios flattened out across the cylinders, Tracy and crew determined they had found and solved the problem, along with releasing some hidden horsepower.
"All I saw was a 40 HP difference on the dyno. With the ST-12 we saw why it was different, and saved an engine," said Tracy.
 Designed with engine builders, tuners and racers in mind the Innovate ST-12 can power and manage inputs from up to 12 LC-1 wideband oxygen sensor cables, and has additional capability for RPM, MAP, temperature, and duty cycle input channels. |
And this is not an isolated case. Tracy has found that by using the Innovate ST-12 to monitor the air fuel ratio in each cylinder allows him not only to save engine damage, but to find the engine's sweet spot – where it likes to make maximum horsepower. While a bank-to-bank dyno pull will give an average of air fuel ratios across a bank of cylinders, the ST-12's wideband oxygen-sensor controllers tell the absolute story of each combustion chamber. While it may seem impossible, a carburetor can indeed starve an individual cylinder of fuel, even with a single plane open plenum intake manifold. Since a bank-to-bank reading averages readings it simply cannot find this kind of problem.
 The LM-1 is a fully portable self-calibrating wideband tuning system, and comes complete with LogWorks software. Available as a baseline system or as a kit with an LMA-2 RPM Converter or LMA-3 AuxBox, the LM-1 is a tuning dyno you can take along for a ride. |
Once the engine goes out of the shop and hits the track, Tracy relies on an Innovate LM-1 and LMA-3 AuxBox kit for monitoring and logging additional inputs under real time, real world, race conditions. The differences that variables such as under-hood temperature, altitude changes, ram air from a hood scoop, an air pan under the carburetor, or spacer can have on the air fuel ratios, can be recorded and logged. The LM-1 data logs can then be e-mailed back to Tracy for analyzing against previous dyno pull logs, or analyzed on track using Innovate's LogWorks software. Being able to figure out how variables affect performance is the name of the game. These days Tracy is happy tuning engines and racing his 602 cubic inch fuel injected 2002 Firebird in Super Gas. Along with his clients, Tracy has helped his local buddies get several Super Gas, Super Street, and Super Comp cars running pretty sweet, and truly believes that wide band air fuel tuning technology is the biggest tuning innovation since the timing light.
"We've had a lot of success by tuning with air fuel ratios. I think that if I have had to learn to do it by reading spark plugs, or EGT's, or the old school methods that these guys are still employing, I would probably be missing the boat on a lot of these tune-ups, and I think I'm nailing them," said Tracy. 
SOURCE:
| Pedigo Performance 1851 S. Hoover Rd. Wichita, KS 67209 316-558-5552 |
Innovate Motorsports 5 Jenner, Suite 100 Irvine, CA 92618 949-502-8400 http://www.innovatemotorsports.com |
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